The first few wearables' generations were made with ancient node chips.Transition to leading edge could easily increase Customer interest.I waited to 4th generation to build 1st SSS PC ~6 years ago. Flawless.

Consumer Reports is out with its test results for the new Apple Watch Series 3. These smartwatches were just unveiled a few weeks ago.

Not only did these watches make the recommended list, but they ranked near the top of the ratings. In fact, the Apple Series 3 with GPS and cellular, and a stainless steel case is the magazine's top-rated smartwatch, earning 95 out of 100 points.

Its sapphire crystal glass surface did very well on scratch resistance. It also earned high marks for step counting and heart-rate tracking.

The Apple Series 3 watches with aluminum cases also earned favorable ratings, but the Ion-X glass wasn't quite as scratch resistant.

The cellular models of the Series 3 make calls, receive email and text messages and stream music without a WiFi connection, just like a smartphone.

Some users and reviewers have reported dropped calls. Consumer Reports said it tried, but could not reproduce those problems with its tests

Nvidia partners with Gigabyte and Leadtek for AI, says paperJoseph Tsai, DIGITIMES, Taipei [Tuesday 3 October 2017]Nvidia has been recruiting Taiwan-based hardware manufacturers such as Gigabyte Technology and Leadtek Research to join its alliance for artificial intelligence (AI), according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News report.

Currently, Nvidia's GPUs are mainly used in three major applications: gaming, cryptocurrency mining and AI, and the chips are primarily providing calculation via servers for AI applications, the paper noted citing Gigabyte as saying.

Although AI applications now only account for a small share of the GPU shipments compared to that of the gaming, they are still growing rapidly and could become the mainstream application soon, the paper pointed out.

Gigabyte has a tight partnership with Nvidia in the AI area and is responsible for the design and manufacturing of related whole-rack servers and motherboards. The business currently contributes 15-20% of the Gigabyte's overall revenues and sales from the product line are also expected to grow 30% on year in 2018, the paper said.

Meanwhile, Nvidia has also partnered with Leadtek to push Deep Learning Institute (DLI) to nurture talent for AI development, added the paper

In a roundabout way, the article explains why Buffet sold so much of his IBM stock. AWS did what he thought IBM would do. Six years of investments in IBM and six years of losses because AWS is better.

There are any flaws in the article, but still very interesting. WMT's e-commerce grew because it acquired companies not because it was able to do it internally. The CEO was simply incapable of putting together a team who could do the job so he bought up companies (one in particular) that did the hard work for him. I found that section to be the weakest.

There is significant data suggesting that adding more information doesn't improve performance past a certain point. HFT is a perfect example of adding more information and not getting better results. Learning when information overload isn't adding value seems to be the hard part. By the time it's found, it's already too late since the money has already been spent.

In the end, it comes down to WMT being able to use AI to its advantage. The CEO knows AI and e-commerce are the future so he gets points for learning (not knowing) the obvious. Moving a company that's around 50 years old into the future is not an easy task but he might be able to do it as long as he doesn't think he can actually do it - he needs the OneOps team to do it for him.

From what I've read, these guys are using COTS stuff. To be done right bits and pixels must go way up along with FPS.

ASML.

VR headsets to drive near-term growth, but AR headsets to gain momentum by 2020, says IDCJoseph Tsai, DIGITIMES, Taipei [Monday 2 October 2017]IDC is forecasting the combined augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headset market to reach 13.7 million units in 2017, growing to 81.2 million units by 2021 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56.1%. VR headsets will account for more than 90% of the market until 2019 while AR will account for the rest. In the final two years of forecast (2020-2021) IDC expects AR headsets to experience exponential growth as they capture a quarter of the market by the end of the forecast.

"AR headset shipments today are a fraction of where we expect them to be in the next five years, both in terms of volume and functionality," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. "AR headsets are also on track to account for over US$30 billion in revenues by 2021, almost double that of VR, as most of the AR headsets will carry much higher average selling prices with earlier adopters being the commercial segment. Meanwhile, most consumers will experience AR on mobile devices, although it's only a matter of time before Apple's ARKit- and Google's ARCore-enabled apps make their way into consumer grade headsets."

While AR headsets are poised for long-term growth along with a profound impact on the way businesses and consumers compute, VR headsets will drive a near-term shift in computing. Recent price reductions across all the major platforms, plus new entrants appearing in the next month, should drive growth in the second half of 2017 and will help to offset a slow start to the year. Screenless viewers such as the Gear VR will continue to maintain a majority share throughout the forecast, although the category's share will continue to decline as lower-priced tethered head-mounted displays (HMDs) gain share over the course of the next two years. Meanwhile, IDC is predicting that standalone HMDs will gain share in the outer years of the forecast.

"Virtual reality has suffered from some unrealistic growth expectations in 2017, but overall the market is still growing at a reasonable rate and new products from Microsoft and its partners should help drive additional interest in the final quarter of this year," said Tom Mainelli, vice president, Devices and AR/VR at IDC, "As we head into 2018 we'll see additional new products appearing, including standalone headsets from major players, and we expect to see a growing number of companies embracing the technology to enable new business processes and training opportunities."

Upstream suppliers to enjoy rising revenues from AirPods and Apple Watches in 4Q17Monica Chen, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Monday 2 October 2017]Quanta Computer, Inventec as well as the ASE group's Universal Scientific Industrial (USI) and the Foxconn group's Shunsin Technology and Luxshare-ICT, are expected to see strong growths for their wearable product operations in the fourth quarter thanks to rising sales for Apple's AirPods and Watches, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

With the Apple Watch series 3's support for the LTE connection, phone functionality and the AirPods, demand for the smartwatches has been picking up recently.

Quanta and USI have been long-term supply-chain partners of the Apple Watch series and are expected to see a significant revenue contribution from the orders, while Shunsin has just recently joined the supply chain to provide SiP services and will begin processing related orders in February or March 2018, the sources noted.

As for the AirPods, the sources pointed out that the shortages have already eased and Apple has also increased its orders for the device.

Inventec is the manufacturer of the AirPods, while the device's communication module is supplied by Luxshare-ICT. In addition to the orders, Luxshare-ICT also supplies connectors, cables and antennas for Mac and iPhone products.

IC-design house MediaTek has been benefiting from Amazon's launch of its Echo family products, said the sources, adding that MediaTek is currently the primary chipset supplier for Echo smart speakers, accounting for over 50% of Amazon's purchases of chips for Echo products, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News report.

Texas Instruments (TI) and Intel are the two other chipset suppliers for Amazon, said the report.

However, China-based chipset maker Amlogic is stepping up efforts to compete against MediaTek for Amazon's chipset orders for 2018, the sources indicated.

Makers in the supply chains for Google Home and Apple's HomePad are also likely to see strong sales in 2018 as Google is set to announce new Google Home devices in October and Apple is to release new HomePod products in December.

Seeking to become major IoT brand: Q&A with Aaeon chairman YS ChuangNinelu Tu, Taipei; Willis Ke, DIGITIMES [Thursday 28 September 2017]As one of Taiwan's major makers of industrial PCs, Aaeon Technology was back to the capital market in late August 2017, when it was relisted on the local bourse six years after it was acquired by Asustek Computer and delisted in 2011. Over the years, the entire IPC industry has flourished remarkably, driven by the IoT (Internet of Things) and Industry 4.0 trends, and the company has also experienced significant growths and upgrades.

During a recent interview by Digitimes, YS Chuang, chairman of Aaeon, talked about the changes, opportunities and challenges facing Taiwan's IPC industry, the company's changes over the past six years, and its goals after going public again.

Q: How do you see the changes in the IPC industry and market trends?

A: Taiwan IPC players used to focus on factory automation, infrastructures, and vertical markets such as medical care, national defense and transportation. But the emergence of the IoT concept has driven a wider variety of industrial applications for IPC products, and stricter specification requirements will also affect the future development of the IPC industry. Besides, commercial automation will be a new IoT application field, allowing great room for development by IPC makers.

In terms of business models, leading players such as Advantech and Adlink Technology have focused on promoting their own brand products while also handling some medium-size contract manufacturing orders. Smaller firms have mostly relied on small contract manufacturing orders. But Ennoconn's move to focus on contract manufacturing has created certain impacts on traditional IPC makers and generated more collaboration between ICT and IPC firms .

Over the past 3-5 years, acquisitions have increased, gradually changing the business models of the industry. After Asustek Computer announced its acquisition of Aaeon in late 2010, Foxconn has since acquired Ennoconn, which has again made acquisitions of its own. Advantech and Adlink have also purchased stakes in small system integrators or industrial tool suppliers to expand their markets and become more competitive. Moreover, such ICT players as Wistron, Compal and Inventec have also started to engage in deeper cooperation with IPC makers.

There are now more than 30 IPC enterprises in Taiwan, mostly operating on a small to medium scale, leaving much room for acquisitions and mergers among them. Our company is also seeking acquisition opportunities, but the targets will be players in areas where Aaeon's expertise does not lie, such as gaming or POS.

Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages the changing industrial environments will bring to IPC makers?

A: The emerging IoT, Industry 4.0 and smart industry concepts have fueled the development of a greater diversity of IPC products and applications such as commercial automation. In this regard, growing pricing pressure will force globally leading IPC makers to farm out production, triggering flexible demand for small-volume and large-variety production services.

Remember?the shill. A few years ago.Anemic 250MB fones were replacing PCs. LOL.I've seen an 8GB fone. That's 32X.23MP camera requires gobs and gobs of NAND bits.Why would anyone believe a shill or a sponsored "expert".shills paid 7 figures to move prices."experts" paid to support shills.

Me?Facts.Innovators and entrepreneurs with new techniques and materials.Done EUV/ArF.

The Xperia XA1 Plus comes with a 5.5-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1080 by 1920. The model is powered by a MediaTek 1.6GHz octa-core Helio P20 processor and comes with 4GB of RAM and 32GB ROM.

The Xperia XA1 Plus packs a 23-megapixel primary camera on the rear and an 8-megapixel front selfie shooter. It comes with a high-end camera as the photograph capability has become one of the most important features of today's smartphones, according to Jonathan Lin, general manager of Sony Mobile Taiwan.

"MediaTek's commitment to an exciting new era that's set to fuel the massive growth of the Internet of Things."

5G IoE is going to be a yuge EUV/ArF bit driver.

ASML.

MediaTek to conduct interoperability tests with SoftBank for NB-IoT development in JapanRodney Chan, DIGITIMES, Taipei [Tuesday 3 October 2017]MediaTek has announced it will conduct a series of interoperability tests of NarrowBand IoT connectivity (NB-IoT) with SoftBank in the first quarter of 2018 to pave the way for development of NB-IoT commercial applications in Japan.

"MediaTek is proud to be at the forefront of NB-IoT technology innovation, which has the potential to deliver new ways to connect that are both cost effective and power efficient," said Yoshitaka Sakurai, general manager of MediaTek Japan, as cited in a press release. "This initiative with SoftBank, along with the unveiling of our MT2625 NB-IoT SoC solution and our collaboration with leading telecommunications companies around the world, demonstrates MediaTek's commitment to an exciting new era that's set to fuel the massive growth of the Internet of Things."

MediaTek said it has played a pivotal role in the formulation and implementation of the 3GPP LPWA specification for NB-IoT. The company recently unveiled its integrated and ultra-low-power MT2625 NB-IoT SoC and announced its collaboration with China Mobile to build the world's smallest NB-IoT module (16mm X 18mm) around the chipset.

The company said its MT2625 NB-IoT chipset is built to meet the requirements of cost-sensitive and small IoT devices and leverages MediaTek's advanced power consumption technology to enable IoT devices to work with batteries for years. The SoC combines an Arm Cortex-M microcontroller (MCU), pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM), flash memory and power management unit (PMU) into a small package to lower the cost of production while also speeding up time-to-market. The MT2625 supports a full frequency band (from 450MHz to 2.1GHz) of 3GPP R13 (NB1) and R14 (NB2) standards for a wide range of IoT applications including smart home control, logistics tracking and smart meters.